Sachiko
by BlankZeroSeven
Summary: Sachiko likes having friends, so when she starts Saotome Academy, she meets a fair few old and new. She'll have to survive Ren being... Ren, Ichinose being a brick wall, and Tomochika being air headed until they either learn sense or graduate. personally, she's hoping for the former. OC, more in later chapters.


**A/N: I know, not the Harry Potter fic I know (read: hope) some of you have been waiting on. Unfortunately, I've hit a massive writer's block where everything but the story I want is getting written. This fic was born after watching both seasons of Uta no Prince Sama one day in my holidays. I can't promise regular updates and long chapters, but I'll do my best.**

The Prolouge: In Which Sachiko Gains A Hat

The first time Sachiko met Syo, she was eight years old. When she was younger, she had hated being dragged around the boring administration area of the bigger airport her father worked in, so she often escaped from her mother to explore the many levels of the massive building. One day she decided to go up onto the observation deck and watch the planes take off. Sachiko noticed him straight away, seeing as he was sitting in a foetal position, fingers plugged in his ears, on the centre of the roof. The rumbling and groaning of the large aircraft that were taking off and landing on the tarmac down below did not appear to help the poor boy, only causing him to clench his hands tighter around his head.

Sachiko glanced around curiously, wondering if someone had dragged the kid up there against his will, or if he had just wandered without knowing where he would end up, as she herself was prone to doing. Seeing that nobody else appeared to care that there was a frightened child sitting all on his lonesome, she decided to see if there was anything she could do to help. At the very least, she could get her dad to call his parents over the speakers. She glared at an old man who looked down at the boy in disdain as she was making her way to him, appalled that an adult could be so rude. But then again, she had had her own fair share of run-ins with rude old men.

Reaching the boy, she knelt down, ignoring the rough feel of the concrete against her bare knees. Sachiko tentatively held out a hand, hesitating slightly before deciding that if she didn't help, then it was highly unlikely anybody else would bother. She placed the hand on his shoulder, giving it a gentle squeeze.

"What's wrong?" she asked, concern colouring her face as she noticed his pallid colour

"So… High…" he wheezed, not looking up from his feet and the red hat resting upon them.

"Are you afraid of heights?" she questioned, watching for his reaction.

"I'm not afraid!" he shouted, leaping to his feet, before realising they were still on the roof and ducking back down again "I'm terrified" he continued in a small voice.

"If it helps at all, I'm scared of the dark" she said sympathetically "well, less the dark and more what hides in it. You know?"

"Not really." He answered honestly

"Think about it like this, you aren't scared of heights-" she paused to cut off his retort by clamping a hand over his mouth "you're afraid of falling"

"Oh. I guess so" he conceded after he had removed her hand, turning to look at her curiously, not entirely sure what to make of the strange little girl.

"Do you want to know a secret?" she asked, smiling, as she gestured him closer.

Sachiko waited until he had shuffled closer before cupping both hands around his ear and whispering in the way that only children can (loudly and obviously) "If you have a friend with you, it's not as scary. They share the scared so it's half as bad"

He looked at her, surprised "How do you know? You're tricking!" he said, leaping to his feet again, anger and disbelief temporarily overwhelming his sense of fear.

"You're terrified of heights, but you're having an almost normal talk with me right now, aren't you?" she said in response, smiling once more.

"I s'pose" he said grudgingly, rubbing the back of his neck in embarrassment.

"SYO-CHAN~" sing-songed a voice that echoed up the stair well "I found you!"

"Uh-oh, Natsuki." Cursed the boy, who Sachiko now knew was called Syo

"What's the matter?" asked Sachiko, eyes narrowing as she assessed the boy emerging from the stairs "is he bothering you?"

"It's just Natsuki, he means well but…" Syo trailed off, unable to come up with an explanation for his… friend?

"In that case" she muttered, rolling up the sleeves of her baggy red sweatshirt and quickly tugging her short brown hair into a ponytail, a steely look filling her equally steely grey eyes.

Natsuki charged at Syo, apparently intent on glomping the poor guy, but Sachiko just stepped in front of him and redirected the charging boy with a gentle but firm shove. The shove caused Natsuki to go off course, over shooting Syo on the left side before recovering and charging again. Syo ducked behind Sachiko, ignoring the fact that she was both a girl and appeared to be younger than him, watching in horror as Natsuki's glasses were dislodged by the fast pivot he had made.

"We gotta run. Now." He stated, tugging on Sachiko's wrist anxiously.

"I got this." Replied Sachiko with a cocky smirk as she cracked her knuckles "trust me"

Satsuki growled as she nudged Syo back a step and slipped into a fighting stance with both her palms raised in front of her face. He started forward, this time aiming to hurt her rather than tackle Syo, only to be side stepped and shoved once more. He growled again in frustration and swung wildly at Sachiko, who ducked beneath the sloppy fist and nailed Satsuki in the stomach with a quick jab-cross combo. The boy stepped back with a grunt of pain tinged somewhat with surprise, she supposed he wasn't used to girls beating him, most boys weren't. He punched again, but instead of ducking; Sachiko grabbed his wrist, twisted it around, and bent his hand back, holding it in what her sensei jokingly called "the PlayStation controller" grip against her chest. This forced Satsuki to bend forwards lest his shoulder be dislocated and Sachiko applied her weight until he was lying on the concrete. She then moved so she was straddling his body while holding his wrists to the concrete, effectively pinning him.

Syo gaped at her in awe before coming to his senses and rushing to grab the fallen glasses. They were slightly cracked around the edges of the left lens, but otherwise useable. He carefully replaced them on Satsuki's face, taking care not to jab him in the eye, returning his personality to that of Natsuki.

"See?" Sachiko smirked, removing her hands from Natsuki's wrists to release her hair from its tie "told you I had this"

"How did you do that?" asked Syo still amazed that a little girl had brought down _Satsuki_ of all people.

"I'm a kid-level green belt in Karate and I plan to be at least second dan adult blackbelt by the time I finish high school" She smiled, jumping up from her position on top of Natsuki as the boy regained his senses.

"Cool" breathed Syo, looking at Sachiko with the hero-worship he reserved for 'The Prince of Fighting'

"Syo-chan!" shouted Natsuki ecstatically, leaping at the distracted boy.

"I gotta go now, see you later!" Syo shouted over his shoulder as he sprinted away from Natsuki

"Bye!" she shouted back, waving at his retreating form before noticing something on the ground at her feet "wait! You forgot your… oh" she finished lamely as she realised Syo and Natsuki had disappeared down the stairs on the opposite end on the platform.

"Guess I'll just have to look after this till I see him again" she muttered to herself, scooping up the slightly-too-big hat and placing on her head with a smile.

Chapter 1: In which Sachiko breaks Ren. Again.

"Sachiko Ogasawara?" called the teacher, Ringo, beginning the first day of actual classes.

"Here" replied Sachiko, slouching in her seat and tilting her hat to shade her eyes, zoning out until a name she had been both looking forward to and dreading hearing again.

"Natsuki Shinomiya?" called Ringo, moving on to the next person on his roll.

"I'm here Sensei!" shouted Natsuki cheerfully in response, while at the same time Sachiko let out a long suffering groan as she recognised the name of the crazy kid she had met seven years earlier on the roof of the international airport her father's company owned. She had snuck into her dad's office and used the computer wired to the airport data-bases to find out their last names, not that she would ever admit it. She was just curious, not a creepy stalker. She hadn't even done anything once she'd found out, content to let the powers that be do their thing. She was due some luck for once.

The teacher continued with the roll, apparently oblivious to Sachiko's reaction.

Once the roll was complete and Ringo had lain out the school rules to the students, putting extra emphasis on the No-Love policy, he went on to explain the first assignment of the year. Before class, he had randomly assigned composer-idol pairs who would work together to write and preform a song within a one week period. Sachiko tried to read the small hand writing, but sitting as she was in the furthermost back seat on the left hand side, it proved impossible.

Ringo then explained how graduation worked, with an idol and a composer pairing up and competing to be the best in the school, earning a position at the master's course and the chance to become a fully-fledged idol and composer respectively. Deciding the class needed an example of a previous year's collaboration, he called Nanami Haruka to play the first piece of the year on the grand piano at the back of the room. When Nanami faltered, the class began to whisper, all aside from Sachiko, the people she guessed were friends with the struggling girl, and Masato Hijirikawa. Sachiko, who absolutely hated it when people started to whisper behind others backs, decided to do something to distract the class and give Nanami a chance to think. Unfortunately for most of the class, that something happened to be throwing the contents of her pencil case (in which there was a surprising amount of batteries) at those who were genuinely being cruel. Many cries of pain later, those stupid enough to gain Sachiko's dislike were glaring at the smirking girl.

Nanami however had already fled the room, the pressure having got to her despite Sachiko's timely (though not as timely as she had hoped) interference.

"I got this Sensei" said Sachiko, leaping to her feet and chasing after the fleeing pianist, though not before bopping a particularly malicious whisperer on the head and chuckling slightly at his cry of pain.

She chased after the surprisingly speedy redish-head, catching up steadily until she could put a hand on the other girls shoulder and slow her pace, forcing Nanami to stop running and start walking aimlessly with her.

"Wanna tell me what that was all about?" Sachiko asked, flicking the brim of her hat away from her eyes and giving Nanami a small smile.

"I… I can't read sheet music" she whispered, as if it were a shameful secret.

"Meh, that's nothing to worry about. Took me only three days when I was 12 to get the hang of it, so I'm sure at the age of, what, 15? 16? You'll get it before tomorrow ends" Sachiko reassured her, before suddenly remembering something "Oh, and if you're worried about if the others are talking about you after your dramatic exit - don't look at me like that! It was dramatic! - They aren't. While you were in panic-land, I was throwing pencils, pens, erasers and batteries at those bullies. When I left, they were nursing bruises and cursing the day I was born"

"You didn't need to do that for me, we don't even know each other!" exclaimed Nanami, surprised that a complete stranger would go so far as to purposefully make almost an entire class dislike her just to protect someone who they'd never even seen before, not considering the circumstances that had allowed her to take the entrance exam in the first place.

"You don't need to know someone in order to want to lend a hand, besides; I reckon it's perfectly fine to want to protect a friend, right?" Sachiko smiled hopefully, looking up at the taller girl while inwardly cursing her short stature.

"You want to be my friend?" asked Nanami, somewhat shocked. Apparently, she hadn't expected any one to want to be her friend after (what she thought was) her monumental screw-up.

"Well, I can't have people saying I'm just a random, violence-loving, stationary throwing, people whacking, nut-job now can I?" She joked in response, slinging an arm around Nanami's shoulders.

"I don't know how our being friends would change that, but I would like to have another friend" She said with a small smile

"It removes random" Sachiko explained, giving her new friends shoulder a slight squeeze.

"Um, I didn't catch your name" said Nanami uncertainly, hoping that she wouldn't offend the smaller girl.

"Oh, whoops! I'm Ogasawara, Sachiko Ogasawara, but my friends call me 'ko' because I'm smaller than average" Sachiko explained after thwacking herself in the head for not realising that Nanami didn't have any clue who she was.

"You let your friends call you 'child'? Why?" asked Nanami, making it seem to Sachiko that the poor girl was stuck in a constant state of confusion.

"Look at me. There are ten year olds taller than I am; I only measure up to 155cm! I am child sized, and by letting people call me child, they can't use it to tease me," replied Sachiko, once more looking up at the taller girl.

"That makes sense, I guess. On another note, do you know where I can go to learn composition and how to read sheet music?" Nanami questioned, returning the conversation to its original topic.

"The library probably, but I can teach you the basics if you want." Sachiko replied after giggling slightly at Nanami's unintentional pun.

"I would like that," said Nanami, smiling shyly "so I'm guessing you're in the composer course too? What instrument do you play?"

"Awesome, I'm room 217 on the second floor. And yes, I'm entered in the composer course as a guitarist and drummer, but I'm also able to play piano." Sachiko answered somewhat sheepishly, not wanting to come across as an over achiever.

"Impressive. Who taught you? My grandma taught me piano." Stated Nanami, wondering if the smaller girl would be forthcoming.

"My mother taught me piano, my brother taught me the drums, and I've been teaching myself guitar using the internet, though I'm getting lessons here as well seeing as I listed guitar as one of my instruments." Sachiko responded, glancing away from her friend to see that their wandering had brought them to the shore of the lake.

"Huh" Nanami said distractedly, immersed in her thoughts.

"Right then, I should be in my room at five-ish, so feel free to drop by around then. You seem like you wanna think for a bit and I need to eat something, so I'll leave you here. Try not to stay out for too long, it looks like it's gonna bucket down later." Sachiko said by way of farewell, giving Nanami one last smile before heading in the direction of the cafeteria.

Sachiko walked across the lawn lost in her own thoughts, arriving at her destination sooner than she thought she would. She still couldn't believe the grandness of the cafeteria, the place looked more expensive than the manor she had grown up in with her elder brother and nanny. Ignoring the suspicious look of one of the workers behind the food counter, she loaded her plate from the buffet and after swiping her student card to pay, plonked herself down at the centre most table and proceeded to shovel down the copious amount of fried rice she had piled onto her plate.

"Little one, you won't keep your figure if you eat like that" a sultry voice murmured into her ear.

Sachiko finished her forkful and turned to glare at the person behind her.

"Ren-san, do you remember me telling you that I started taking karate?" she questioned, continuing at his nod "I was five then. I'm fifteen now and training to get my second dan black belt, that means at least an hour of either fitness or kata and routine practice every night. I need all the carbs I can get thank you very much"

With that she turned back to her food and was about to continue eating, only to be interrupted once more by Ren.

"Why is it that little Ko-chan isn't in class like all the other students?" He asked her teasingly, removing her hat to ruffle the shoulder length hair that had been shoved inside of it.

"I could ask you the same thing, but we both know the answer." She replied.

"Come now Ko-chan, that wasn't very nice" He said, his tone making it clear he was neither wounded nor offended.

"Fine. A girl in my class was getting hassled because she couldn't read sheet music and ran out of class, I went after her, talked to her, and am now teaching her the basics tonight." Sachiko explained briefly; glare softening at the thought of her new friend before returning full force when she remembered who she was talking to "now can I _please_ eat my food?"

"Is my company so repulsive to you- wait, don't answer that." He finished quickly at the flat stare she gave him as she replaced her hat on her head "you know, with that hat, you remind me of a munchkin in my class" he continued thoughtfully, his expression changing to surprise as Sachiko sat straight up in her seat.

"Syo-san? Syo-san is here?" she asked, spinning around with wide eyes and bouncing a little in excitement.

"Yes, little one. I take it you are already acquainted?" Ren answered with a raised eye-brow

"We met for about five minutes on the observation deck of Kansai airport; I helped him out of a sticky situation and he forgot his hat when Natsuki-san chased him off so I've been looking after it till I see him again." Sachiko replied, smiling at the memory.

"Would you like me to bring him over at dinner tonight? You've waited so long for your reunion; it doesn't seem fair to make you wait any longer." He offered with a smirk

"What's the catch?" she said suspiciously, doubting that Ren was offering from the goodness in his heart.

"I've known you for ten years, please stop calling me Ren-san, and start calling me Ren-_kun_. I think we're fairly familiar by now." He answered, winking at the now angry girl.

"For the last time, I did not agree to that. Do you not remember the broken arm I gave you?" she hissed, referring to the last meeting between her father and Ren's older brother, during which Ren had planted one on her.

"It still aches sometimes. I had to tell people that I fell down the stairs rather than let the world know that Ren Jinguji had his arm broken by a little girl." He said in response, rubbing his left arm to relieve phantom pains.

"Just be glad I didn't break the right one, Ren-kun." Sachiko said with a falsely sincere smile.

"I am, believe me. I'll bring him over to your table, yes?" Ren replied with no small amount of feeling, he knew as well as she did that had she snapped his right arm, he wouldn't be at Saotome academy due to being unable to take the entrance exam.

"Yes. Now please go, the pheromones you let off are tainting my rice." She said, dismissing Ren and turning back to her meal for the second time

"Tch. When this is my thanks, I don't know why I help you." He said as he walked off with a jaunty wave, stalling for a moment as he listened to Sachiko's surprisingly accurate reply

"Pity, guilt, a healthy dose of fear, and a need to be the good guy while hiding behind the play-boy façade." She called after his retreating back, knowing she was right.

With that, she returned to shovelling food into her mouth with barely a breath between. Once she had put her dishes in the dirty pile, Sachiko began walking to the next class on her schedule: guitar. The eerie echoing of her footsteps haunted her all the way there; making it seem like someone was following after her. The bell signalling the end of the first period rang just as she reached the classroom door. Opening it, she strode in and sat down at one of the desks that were arranged in a semi-circle, giving the teacher a quick hello as she did so. Next to walk in was Ittoki Otoya, Nanami's red-headed friend.

"Excuse me, Sachiko-san right?" He said as he pulled up a chair next to her "what did you say to Nanami-chan? Neither of you came back to class."

"Sachiko is me, but feel free to call me ko like my other friends" she said with a smile, glad that Nanami had another loyal friend while indirectly asking him to be hers too "basically, I calmed her down before offering friendship and a lesson on how to read sheet music. She seemed to be thinking about something, so I left her at that bench near the lake to go get some fried rice."

"You left Nanami-chan to get fried rice." He stated flatly, somewhat incredulously.

"If I'd stayed, I would have just distracted her. If it makes you feel any better, the universe sent Ren Jinguji to pester and extort me." Sachiko responded giving an over-dramatic shudder at the thought.

"Jinguji-san extorted you? Are you alright?" he said instantly, earlier disbelief morphing into concern.

"It's alright, we go way back. He offered to bring someone I've been trying to get in contact with for seven years to see me at dinner tonight in exchange for me calling him 'Ren-kun'. I'm just glad he didn't ask for 'Ren-sama' instead, I'd've had to break his face." She replied, not wanting to worry the friendly boy.

"That is a hell of a lot better than I thought it would be; when you hear 'Ren Jinguji' and 'extort' in the same sentence, you kind of jump to conclusions. How do you know the guy anyways?" He asked, glad that Ren wasn't forcing himself on anyone.

"Our families run in the same circles, I'm relatively good friends with Masato-kun too." She explained, leaning back into her seat "How 'bout you? How'd you meet Nanami-chan?"

"She was late to the entrance exam because she stopped to help a lost kid find their mother, so Jinguji-san and I tried to persuade the guards to let her in. We were already registered as present so there was no harm done for us, but the guards weren't having a bar of it until someone gave the okay through a walkie-talkie. I just saw her again yesterday." Answered Ittoki with a smile "speaking of yesterday, where were you during the introduction? I didn't see you in homeroom."

Sachiko grimaced slightly before responding "I was getting chewed out for refusing to wear that awful yellow skirt and stupid bow. If they don't want me wearing pants and a tie, they should fix their damn uniforms!"

"You aren't wrong, but I think they make the uniforms awful on purpose. After all, materialistic guys tend not to fall in love with girls that wear terrible clothes." He theorised, looking thoughtful.

"Enough chit-chat! Every come to the front and grab a guitar so we can get started!" ordered the teacher, doing a decent impression of a drill sergeant.

"Hai Sensei" droned the class, moving to do as instructed.

"Those of you who are decent at this, please teach the mediocre players while I take care of the complete newbies." said the teacher, appraising the students standing in front of him. "Beginners come forward; the rest of you can sort yourselves out"

Ittoki turned to Sachiko with a questioning look on his face.

"Mediocre," she answered, knowing what he was looking for "I can play most chords, but I'm slow. I'm still adjusting"

"Lucky for you I happen to be a master guitarist who took this class because I needed an easy subject. Now sit down and we'll have a look at your technique." He instructed with a smile that Sachiko guessed was almost always present.

After that, the lesson flew by in a blur of chatting, laughing and a few minor corrections regarding her hand and finger placements.

"What have you got after lunch? I have double dance lessons." Ittoki asked as they walked out of the room.

"I'm in the composer course, so I've got a piano lesson and what they're calling 'self-study', which is basically me going back to my room and having a blast on the drums, because they don't have a drum teacher and couldn't be stuffed finding one for just one student. Then back to homeroom to do whatever it is we're meant to do in that class." Replied Sachiko, glancing out the window and noticing Nanami still sitting on the bench where they had finished talking earlier.

Ittoki followed her line of sight, noticing Nanami for himself. Seeing the puppy-dog look on his face, she shook her head in mock disdain.

"Off with you then Casanova, the auburn haired maiden eagerly awaits your arrival" she said in a terrible posh voice, accentuating it with a bow and an arm sweep in Nanami's general direction.

She watched Ittoki out the window, laughing as he pulled the clichéd give-the-girl-your-jacket-cause-it's-raining move.

"Good luck" she muttered under her breath, unsure if she meant it for Nanami or Ittoki "both, definitely both"

That decided, she retraced her steps back to the cafeteria to see if she could get a milkshake.

She loved milkshakes. And chocolate, she really loved chocolate.

Before Sachiko knew it, it was 4:30 and Nanami was knocking on her door.

"Come on in, welcome to the only soundproofed room on the whole floor." She said as she swung the door open to reveal the room.

One wall was covered in floor to ceiling mirrors while the other three were painted a bright shade of sky blue. The floor beneath the mirrors was covered in three rows of jigsaw martial arts mats arranged like a red and blue checker board. Hanging from the glow-star covered ceiling above the mats on either end were two punching bags with elastic securing them to the ground to prevent damage to the walls. Flush against the walls closest to the door sat a bookshelf packed with nick-knacks and karate equipment and a cupboard that held all her clothes.

Sachiko's drum kit sat in the far left corner of the room, next to the window-doors that led out onto the veranda. Her guitars, one electric and one acoustic, were resting in their stands against the wall and beside the basic piano. On top of the piano was a keyboard, its stand folded up and leaning on the wall between the guitars and cherry wood piano. A medium sized desk was adjacent to the instruments, serving as both a place to study and a place to eat, as Sachiko had forgone a table in order to make use of the space she was given. In the closest corner to the left was Sachiko's bed, which had a progression of coloured belts pinned to the wall above the head rest.

"You have this all to yourself?" Nanami breathed, marvelling at the size and the way it had been utilised.

"Yup! No-one wanted to share with the drum player, so they sound proofed the room and gave it to me. I love it, as you can probably see, it gave me room to set up a practice area for karate!" answered Sachiko, gesturing at the right hand side of the room "and put all my instruments!" she tagged on, gesturing to the left side.

"Where are we going to study?" Asked Nanami, having already noted the lack of table.

"On the mats, just make sure to get a clipboard or your pen is gonna go right through the paper" replied Sachiko as she grabbed a few bits of paper with lines already ruled for composition, a handful of pencils, erasers, and the aforementioned clipboards.

"Okay, thank you again for the help" Said Nanami, still a little shy around the girl she had just met

"Don't worry about it, you seem like a nice person, so I'm sure you would have done it for me had our positions been reversed." Sachiko said modestly, waving off the thanks "right, let's get started then."

When she looked up at the clock after the two had been working for a while, her eyes widened in surprise.

"Is the universe screwing with me again?" she muttered, drawing Nanami's attention "It's quarter to seven, I'm headed to dinner in fifteen minutes."

"I'll go to the library to study some more then, now that I know how to read and write sheet music, I want to look into advanced composition techniques" Nanami said, packing up the gear the two girls had been using and organising it into a neat pile.

"Make sure you eat! No point studying if you're just gonna pass out from hunger Nami-chan" reminded Sachiko, using the _completely_ original nick-name she had come up with.

"I will Ko-chan, just not until later." Nanami reassured her as she walked out of the door.

Flopping down so that she was staring at the ceiling, Sachiko started to think about what would happen at dinner. What if he thought she was weird? Who was she kidding, she didn't give a damn. Hell, she hardly knew the kid.

"Bugger it, I can be early." She muttered to herself as she leapt up and walked to her cupboard.

She changed quickly into a pair of dark jeans, a red singlet and a thin denim shirt. She picked up her hat and carefully positioned it on top of her head, this time not bothering to tuck her hair into it. Finally ready, she locked her door and left. Anticipation buzzed in her veins as she almost ran down the stairs and into the cafeteria. Moving to the buffet again, she dished herself up a small salad, a few hunks of bread and a medium sized bowl of soup. She sat down in the same seat she had that morning and began to eat her salad.

"I didn't take you for a salad girl Ko-chan. Want happened to 'I need all the carbs I can get', hmm?" Ren whispered into her ear, his breath tickling her neck.

"I hate salad; I'm only eating it because I promised mum I would. I'd much prefer a nice steak with a side of mashed potatoes." Explained Sachiko, pausing her eating to turn and look at Ren and the smaller boy next to him.

"Syo-chan, meet Ko-chan, for the second time I believe." Introduced Ren before sauntering away to watch the meeting from a safe distance.

"Stop calling me that Goddamnit!" Shouted Syo before surveying the girl in front of him.

"Pull up a chair Syo-san, I bet you're wondering what that idiot meant when he said 'for the second time', yes?" questioned Sachiko as she kicked the chair next to her out.

"I am a bit" admitted Syo, warily taking the proffered seat.

"We were about eight at the time; I talked you out of being scared on the roof of the airport and took down Natsuki-san when he tried to grab you. You then ran off with him chasing after, but you dropped this" Sachiko explained, gesturing at the hat on her head "I've been looking after it"

Syo blinked at her, disbelieving. "You've kept my hat for seven years?"

"It's a cool hat, alright? I happen to like it!" she said defensively

"Keep it then, red suits you more than me" he said, finally recalling that day and not wanting to get on the bad side of someone capable of stopping Satsuki "How has your karate training gone? You were… green belt I think, weren't you?"

"Awesome! I'm training for my second dan black belt now, you should see my room, half of it looks like a gym crossed with a dance studio." She joked, smiling at Syo

"Is that an invitation?" teased Syo, feeling strangely at ease with the short girl.

"Don't see why not, but only for a bit, I need to go for a run at some point tonight." Answered Sachiko, glad that he was treating her as if they'd known each other for much longer instead of having just re-met minutes earlier.

"I'll head over once I've finished eating then. What's your room number?" He asked, cocking his head slightly to the side with a small smile.

"I'm 217 on the second floor. Don't bother knocking if the door is unlocked, just come right in." Sachiko said in response.

"I guess I'll see you then" he said, standing up from his seat and glancing at the buffet table.

"I'd be cheesy and say 'I guess you will', but I'd rather not" Sachiko said with a slight smirk "So I'll just stick with bye"

Syo chuckled quietly before moving off to get his dinner. Sachiko was stoked, that had gone better than she had hoped it would, not that she spent time imagining what there meeting would be like. That would be creepy. Twirling her spoon in one hand in an absent minded manner, she finished her salad. Next she used the now motionless spoon to scoop large dollops of pumpkin soup onto one of the hunks of bread she had grabbed and gobbled it down. Sachiko repeated this motion until all of the bread and soup had been ingested. Finished with her meal, she put it down at the ever-growing dirty dish pile.

"Known him for five minutes and already inviting him to your room, what are we to do with you little Ko-chan?" Ren's voice rumbled from beside her.

"First of all, will you please stop doing that? If you continue to sneak up on me, I'll break your legs. Secondly, I've technically known him for seven years. Finally, I'm showing him the Karate gear I have set up, not doing… Ren-ish stuff." Sachiko listed, irritated with the womaniser.

"I don't doubt that little one." Ren replied, completely un-fazed "But be careful, there would be a media frenzy if the under-aged heir to Ogasawara fortune was to get pr-"

Ren was unable to finish his sentence, let alone his word, because Sachiko took immediate offense at what she knew he was about to say. She booted his knee, causing him to drop down onto his un-injured one. Since Ren was now her height, she socked him in the head, effectively knocking him out. Ignoring the stares of the other students, she picked him up in a fireman's lift and walked slowly to the exit, ignoring the pulses of pain from her left hand. Sachiko smirked at the look on Syo's face when he saw her casually carrying the significantly taller boy away from the cafeteria.

"Ah great," she said as she realised something that did not please her in the slightest "now I've got to carry him up three god-damned sets of stairs."

Said stairs took her almost ten minutes to climb. Knocking on the door she knew belonged to Masato and Ren, she called out "I found a stray dog Masato-kun, I thought you might like it."

Footsteps came from the other side of the wall, drawing closer until the door was opened. Masato took one look at her before opening the door widely and stepping out of her way.

"Sometimes I believe that boy is a Masochist, what with the way he constantly antagonises you." He said, watching as she dumped Ren roughly on his bed.

"I don't disagree with you." Sachiko stated, scooping up Ren's darts and firing them in rapid succession, each landing neatly in the triple twenty "could you tell him I say next time it'll be something he values much more that gets kicked."

"I will try to remember" he said monotonously as Sachiko made for the door.

"Thanks Masato-kun"

Ten minutes later saw her dressed for running in the same red singlet, a pair of black running shorts and a thin jacket. Sachiko was just about to put on her sneakers when someone opened her door and walked in.

"I was not expecting this." Syo stated, looking around the room "wait, you play drums?" he added registering the presence of the electric blue drum kit.

"I get that a lot, and yes I can" Sachiko answered

"Um, if you don't mind me asking, why did you knock Ren-san out in the middle of dinner?" he questioned nervously, not wanting to end up in the same condition as his class mate.

"He was being the him that he projects to the world. At some point, I hope to finally injure him enough that he realises he's being an idiot and go back to the way he was before." She replied, her explanation only half making sense to him.

Attention turning to the punching bags, he gestured at the closest "Can I?"

"Sure, just don't go too hard or the elastic could snap." She said as she pulled her hair into a scruffy pony tail.

Syo proceeded to flick his shoes off and take a loose fighting stance.

"Jab, cross, left hook, right uppercut" called Sachiko, seeing if he would follow.

He did.

"You do Karate too don't you? Why did you start?" She questioned after seeing him execute the punches with an ease that only hours of practise could achieve.

"I do, I'm a teenage black belt, but I cross grade to adult black at the end of this year. As for why I started, I wanted to prove to my family that I'm not fragile, I can run and jump and fall like everybody else." Syo answered

"Why would your family treat you like you're fragile?" she asked curiously, wondering if he would tell her the truth

"It's nothing." He said quickly before changing the subject "why did you start Karate?"

"Do you remember me telling you that I was afraid of the dark?" she said, answering a question with a question, before continuing at his nod "when my brother was twelve and I had just turned five, he took me into the city for a day trip. I had an amazing time; we watched a movie, ate ice-cream and went shopping. Then it got dark. Kazumi couldn't remember where our parents had told us to wait for them, so we ended up wandering. Unfortunately for us, we wandered into the wrong alley. Long story short, we were kidnapped by a complete nutter and shoved into his basement. We were separated for a while, but were eventually put together because I wouldn't stop singing nursery rhymes to keep myself calm and they wanted Kazumi to shut me up.

That plan back fired badly, Kazumi used his height to boost me up to the tiny window near the roof and I wiggled out. I memorised the number and street name before running a few blocks and knocking on doors until someone let me use their phone. When the police stormed the place, they found false birth certificates, passports, everything. Apparently, we were just in the wrong place at the wrong time and about to be sent off to an English couple as 'orphans'. We were missing for a week. After that, I was determined to never be put in a position where I have no power again. I started Karate the very next day." Sachiko explained, a faraway expression in her eyes as she relived the memory.

Syo stared at her with wide eyes before heaving a full body sigh "I have a serious heart condition. It's been weak my whole life, but started to play up when I was nine. I was told I had three years to live, so I wanted to make the best of the time I had left. I took up karate in part to show I wasn't a weakling that needed to be sheltered and in part to make it possible for me to at some point act with Ryuga sensei in Prince of Fighting one day."

"Have you considered getting a transplant?" She asked, looking up at him from the cross legged position she had adopted on the floor.

"Of course I have!" he shouted, looking sheepish as he realised what he had done before explaining "it's just, organ donating is limited here, if I want to get a new heart, I'll have to go to America. Even in America the number of foreigners able to get transplants is limited to five a year, so even if my family could afford to send me, I might not even be able to get one."

"Remember that airport we met at? Kansai international?" Sachiko probed, suddenly overcome with shyness and staring at her feet before mumbling "yeah, my dad owns the company that runs it and Osaka international. Basically, if you wanted me to, I could get you a seat on any plane leaving either airport going anywhere free of charge"

"You would do that?" He said thumping down to a seated position due to shock.

"I would, I'm not about to withhold something that could help save your life" she answered sincerely

"I hope you don't mind, but I need to go back to my room and digest all of this. But thank you, thank you so much" Syo said gratefully as he dazedly made his way to the door.

Sachiko followed him out, intending to clear her head with a long run around the grounds.

Meanwhile, in the room of Masato and Ren, the latter was just waking from his Sachiko-induced nap.

"She says next time it'll be something you value more that gets kicked."

**A/N: So, yay or nay? Is Sachiko too mary-sueish? The next chapter is underway, but do you guys want me to keep going? Should I stop asking you questions?**


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